Oh, that old thing

Personally, i don’t pay much mind to what the mainstream press says about esports, for all the reasons that Richard Lewis mentions in his latest column (http://www.cadred.org/News/Article/181619/). I genuinely believe we’re better off without them. But sometimes it’s kind of forced to my attention, and usually gets my hackles up.

This time, it wasn’t even the original article that bugged me - we’ve seen these baseless, ill-informed attacks too many times for me to really care any more. But the thing that bugs me came from the follow-up piece, a question that most esports aficionados have had to deal with over the years: “are they athletes?”

Really? This again? I didn’t realise it was still 2002. Talk about spectacularly missing the point. Are chess players athletes? Are golfers athletes? Are snooker players athletes? More importantly, does it even remotely matter in any way? They are sportsmen, aspiring, professional or amateur. They are competitors above all else, athleticism be damned.

Honestly, I should know better than to give a damn what mainstream hacks think of us, and so should Mr Lewis. As I said earlier, I think we’re better off if these guys don’t want anything to do with us, because “mainstream” is just a bastardisation of anything that once might have been good. I don’t want their hateful sob stories, I don’t even want their patronisingly positive freakshow stories (“this guy makes a living off gaming, holy shit!”). Just fuck off and leave us alone, thanks.